A note on evaluating the representivity of samples taken in less developed countries

The representivity of many samples taken in less developed countries is left open to question because researchers have no dependable tools for evaluating samples taken from imperfectly known parent populations. In this paper a method designed to perform that function is explained. It is based on comparisons of proportions estimated from two independent samples, focusing on situations where the larger sample size is unknown. This method is also demonstrated via illustrative examples.     

A comparison of Japanese and American business negotiations

The determinants of the outcomes of business negotiations in two cultures are investigated in a laboratory experiment. The most important causal factor in Japanese negotiations was found to be the role (i.e., buyer or seller) of the negotiator. Japanese buyers consistently achieved higher bargaining solutions than Japanese sellers. The primary causal factor in negotiations between Americans was the information content of bargaining strategies. Americans to whom bargaining partners gave information more freely achieved higher bargaining solutions.     

The impact of telephone notification strategies on response to an industrial mail survey

The mail questionnaire is a popular method of gathering data among marketing academics. However, response rates from industrial populations are often low. A number of alternative strategies designed to enhance response from industrialists are evaluated. The results show that satisfactory response rates can be achieved by the integration of telephone and mail contacts within a survey design without loss of response quality nor distortion of sample composition.     

Demographics,job satisfaction,and propensity to leave of industrial salesmen

An extremely important and expensive promotional tool used by industrial marketers is personal selling. One of the major costs of personal selling is the cost associated with sales personnel turnover. Past studies in the sales management area have focused on the effect of organizational and psychological factors on the satisfaction of salespeople and their propensity to leave their organizations. However, no study has examined the interrelationships among salespeople's demographic variables, job satisfaction, and propensity to leave, even though such relationships have been studied for nonselling occupations. An empirical study done to at least partly fill this research void is described. The results provide new insights for researchers and practitioners with an interest in the sales management area.     

Social power bases of marketing executives: The relationship with organizational climate

This research paper reports the results of a mailed questionnaire study of 343 marketing executives. The purpose of the research was to investigate whether or not a relationship exists between organizational climate (i.e., specific conditions in the organizational environment of the firm) and the particular social power base of the marketing executive. Results indicate that the three desirable power bases—expert, referrent, and legitimate—are correlated with all four of the organizational climate dimensions studied—reward orientation, personnel policies, MBO orientation, and status orientation. The undesirable power base—coercive power—was correlated with none of these dimensions.     

Liquidity,exchange listing,and common stock performance

The liquidity of securities—the relationship between volume of trading and changes in market price—has won increasing recognition as an element of investment strategy in recent years. Relatively high liquidity is deemed to be a desirable characteristic of a stock, especially for the institutional investor, who typically trades in large volume. Thus, firms can generally be expected to seek means of enhancing the liquidity of their shares. One of the supposed means of accomplishing this is by listing one's stock on a national securities exchange. This paper examines the relationship of common stock liquidity to both exchange listing and price behavior during major up and down movements in the market. Our conceptual and empirical analyses indicate that liquidity is linked to price behavior; and we suggest that the view held by at least some corporate officers—that exchange listing increases liquidity—may be erroneous. More specifically, it appears that when the amount of firm capitalization is taken into account, exchange listing does not result in greater stock liquidity.     

Prices of deep discount bonds and the Revenue Act of 1978: An evaluation of market response

This article explores the market response of deep discount corporate bonds to the reduction in the capital gains tax rate incorporated into the Revenue Act of 1978. Such tax change should have increased the desirability of assets acquired for capital gains potential, such as deep discount bonds. Examining a time series of prices and returns for a sample of deep discount corporate bonds and a control group of comparable duration and credit risk corporate bonds selling at or near par did indeed provide evidence of a market price reaction. Moreover, the price changes for the deep discount bonds occurred well in advance of the implementation of the tax change.     

Expectancy-value attitude models: An analysis of critical theoretical issues

Expectancy-value models are analyzed in terms of their level of abstraction and the rules governing how beliefs and evaluations combine to produce an attitude. In addition, suggestions are made as to modes of operationalization and methods for assessing the reliability and validity of any representation.     

A shift in perspective? The role of emotional branding in shaping born globals’ performance

Branding strategies have been at the core of marketing and strategy literatures for decades. Global brands are known for their positive influence in increasing customer trust and confidence, thus reducing the risks associated with foreign operations from the firms’ standpoint. These positive effects of global brands have led to research exploring brand image while emphasizing its relevance in positioning, gaining competitive advantage, and facilitating firms’ international business. Born-global firms (BGs) can mostly benefit from harnessing brand image, mainly by reducing market-related uncertainties while establishing a brand-based reputation and thus enhance their international expansion. However, very few attempts have been made to investigate the role of branding in advancing BG performance. Through a survey-based study including 147 Israeli BGs, complemented by 11 in-depth interviews with BG managers, we investigated the distinct role of functional and emotional brand-image aspects. The findings demonstrate that emotional branding bears a significant impact on BG performance. This impact reaches beyond the influence of innovativeness and marketing intelligence on BG performance. Surprisingly, while functional branding was enhanced by firms’ innovativeness, it showed no significant impact on international performance.     

Managerial bias in anticipated images of competing shopping areas

Several dimensions of consumer retail patronage decisions that affect the firm's marketing program are investigated. In particular, the focus of the research extends previous research in the area to investigate the images held by consumers of shopping malls rather than individual stores. Second, the ability of store managers to accurately predict the image held by consumers both of their own shopping area and of a competitor's shopping area is investigated. This is designed to evaluate the ability of managers to predict consumer perceptions irrespective of their own beliefs. Finally, differences in the perceptions of two potential market segments are compared. Manager ability to differentiate between segments is noted. The implications for marketing programming decisions and the contribution the research makes to the body of literature on image measurement are discussed.     

Effects of signed versus unsigned internally administered questionnaires for managers

An assessment was made of the effects of signed and unsigned questionnaires on return rates and response patterns to sensitive and nonsensitive items when respondent confidentiality was not promised. The subjects were 126 grocery store managers who responded to a job attitude questionnaire internally administered by their firm's personnel office. Response patterns were found to be influenced by signing questionnaires. There were no differences in response rates between groups.     

Industrial marketing strategies and different national environments

This article analyzes the marketing strategies of industrial suppliers in five Western European countries. The strategies are characterized in a quality dimension and a customer adaptation dimension. In the quality dimension the strategies are found to be related to characteristics of the industrial environment of the supplier country. In the adaptation dimension they are related to the cultural affinity with the customer country as perceived by industrial purchasers in these countries.     

Marketing of noncommercial test institutions

A marketing concept for nonprofit or noncommercial institutions conducting comparative product tests is developed. Special emphasis is placed on a coordination of sales and acquisition marketing. The German “Stiftung Warentest” serves as a example. Its unique aspects in both producing and dissemination a nontangible good, namely information, raise a number of interesting and different issues in which the marketing concept can be creatively adapted so as to further institutional goals.     

Expectancy-value attitude models an analysis of critical measurement issues

Criteria for scaling beliefs and evaluations in the Fishbein model are considered, and a procedure is developed and illustrated for the proper test of multiplicative models. Hierarchical regression is shown to be a valid method for testing interaction hypotheses even when measures are only interval or ordinal scaled.     

关于大冬会旅游客源市场的研究

2009年第24届世界大学生冬季运动会在哈尔滨举办,为哈尔滨旅游业的发展提供了难得的机遇。为了做好大冬会的旅游接待工作,必须对大冬会旅游客源市场进行深入的分析与预测,总结其中的规律性,以期为哈尔滨的旅游管理部门与旅游企业提供一定的指导与借鉴。     

Inequality and entrepreneurial thresholds

We explore the relationship between inequality and entrepreneurial activity. Drawing on cross-sectional data from a largescale survey of the economic conditions of individuals across India, we develop a number of dimensions of inequality to explore empirically how inequality interacts with entrepreneurship, operationalized as self-employment or as employing other people. We find compelling evidence that there are thresholds to becoming self-employed, and even more so to assembling the combinations of resources and personal attributes required to become an employer. Greater inequality leaves more people unable to make the transition to self-employment, leaving casual laboring as the occupation of necessity. At the same time, inequality increases the number of employers in a society, by concentrating resources - particularly land and finance - enough for significant numbers of people to be able to cross this higher threshold. Lastly, greater differentiation into social or religious groups curtails the ability to cross either entrepreneurial threshold, presumably by limiting the extent and benefits of social networks of value for entrepreneurship.